With great sadness, we announce the passing of Cathy Saltwick. At approximately midnight Botswana time on Friday, May 30th, 2008 she was killed in an auto accident when the car she was riding in went out of control and hit a tree. We are told that she died instantly and take comfort in knowing that she didn't suffer. She was taken from us all too soon, and we will dearly miss her laughter and joy of life.
Catherine Elise Saltwick was born September 16, 1972 to John and Jeanette Saltwick. She grew up with close ties to family, particularly her sister Christine Uyyek. She distinguished herself early as both a gifted mind and an independant spirit, graduating from Seattle Country Day School in 1985 and went on to become the youngest graduating senior in Ballard High School history in 1988. She then went on to graduate from the University of Washington in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry.
Cathy's kind and caring spirit guided her to a career helping others. She volunteered at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Seatttle, as well as The Stanley Stamm Camp for handicapped children. She worked at Swedish Hopital and then Virginia Mason in their Central Services Departments. During college and after graduation, she worked as a Procurement Technician for the Lion's Eye Bank and then went on to work as a Coordinator with the Northwest Tissue Center. Pursuing a life-long dream to travel, she volunteered with the Peace Corps and in 2006 was assigned to do HIV community outreach in Botswana, in Southern Africa.
Cathy's light touched us all, and she will be missed. Her family held a memorial service on Saturday, June 14. A video of the service will be made available on this site soon. The slide show shown before and after the service is viewable below.
Cathy's friend and fellow Peace Corps volunteer Chandi created a blog where friends and family can record their memories of Cathy. You can share your Cathy stories with the rest of us by sending it to cathysaltwick.memory@blogger.com. You can read it by following this link.
There is also a Seattle Times article about Cathy in the Wednesday, June 4 edition. The Peace Corps press release may be found here. KOMO Channel 4 news in Seattle also did a report June 13, 2008. You can view it by clicking here. Those wishing to visit Cathy's final resting place in Seattle may find it HERE, at Crown Hill Cemetary.
Cards for the Saltwick family should be sent care of Mike and Chris' address as well:
10519 North Park Ave. N.
Seattle, WA 98133
In lieu of flowers, Cathy's family requests that donations be made in Cathy's name to Children's Hospital in Seattle.
Slide show shown before memorial service, "The Early Years." (20 minutes long)
